Questionably Fabulous

Last night I was at a friend’s birthday party.  Which, by the way, is a totally new animal now that friends of mine have kids.  All of a sudden what would have been a night full of empty wine bottles followed by a morning of heavy clean up is now a night full of changing diapers, playing musical baby followed by a morning of tripping over toys…  but I digress.

What really interested me last night and inspired this blog is that the topic of a THROUPLE came up.  Anyone know what it is?  If you go to The Urban Dictionary they will verify that it is a threelationship; a relationship with three partners.  Have I got your attention? 

So this topic was brought up by a women, who is in a standard two person relationship and has often told her boyfriend that she’d like to be in a throuple.  I was stunned and of course had to totally dissect her thought processes.  And I also was stunned to learn that her boyfriend wasn’t as gun-ho as I would have assumed he would be.  Mostly, I think, it’s because she is open to having her throuple be with a man or a woman, whenever would fit them best.

So, here are the “pros” for throuples:

• Third Income: buying that dream house is a little more realistic when you have a third income to help support the family. 
• Tie Breaker: when deciding which movie to see its no longer MY choice versus YOUR choice, there is a third voter now and decisions from restaurants to vacations to painting the living room are not a two outta three scenario.
• Chores: split among three people, or among two depending on your relationship. 
• Spread the Nag:  again, split up this and one person would get nagged less as the nagging would be evenly distributed between two people.

The woman who I was talking to about all of this said that she wasn’t 100% wed to the idea of having the throuple be sexual, to which I said that the name for that relationship would then become roommate.  She suggested that there had to be something between roommate and three-some that was more intimate than roommate but less intimate than three-some.  I told her this was not possible.  I also told her about the fourple (yes that would be a fourlationship or a four person relationship) that I have in my family.  Yeppers, and you thought your holidays were weird! 

Truth be told, I married into the family with the fourple and have never met them but all of the stories I’ve heard about them all have been great.  They sound like a totally traditional couple but with four…  I can’t quite understand how it works.  I totally can get to the place, logically, where non-exclusive relationships work.  But I keep coming up with scenarios like: 

• One Income: one income may work to support two people.  Or more people when children are involved.  But can you imagine in today’s economy trying to support three adults on one income?  Four adults?  Wow.  Maybe my shopping habbits are worse than those in throuples and fourples but I can’t imagine what that budget looks like!   
• Always the Looser: when deciding which movie to see what if you’re the one who likes action the two people in your throuple both like romance?  You’re always sentenced to watching movies like Transformers cause now it’s a democracy?!  What if you’re a meat eater and the other two are vegetarians and they won’t let you have meat in the house?!  Just sayin, this might not be fair always. 
• Chores: split among three people might be great, but what if two are like me and hate to clean?  Then one person cleans up and picks up for three?  Blek! 
• Two Way Nagging:  Forget even distribution, now you’d have two people nagging at you from two different directions! 

So, in summary, not only does my insecurity and jealously keep me from being in a throuple but apparently my fear of cleaning, running out of money, being the outsider and ability to nag keeps me in a two person couple.  Go figure! 

Hypothetical Personal Ad:

Looking for a way to do less chores and gang up on your partner?  Join our throuple now!